Two years ago, on 16 August 2017, the Minamata Convention on Mercury – a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from human-induced emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds – came into force…

Chemicals are all around us. They keep our homes clean, produce better goods, improve health care and are major contributors to national and world economies. As the world’s population approaches 8 billion, the sound…

Burning plastic smells awful. It also gives you that choking feeling… which is no surprise when you know that plastic is basically made of oil and gives off toxic fumes when it burns.
Incineration of plastic waste in open…

In the world before modern medicine it was up to the local shaman, monk or wise woman to treat injury and disease, often with remedies based on local medicinal plants.
Today, many of these time-worn cures remain popular…

UN Environment today released its 2018 Annual Report, highlighting the organization’s work on issues from fighting pollution of the air and sea to helping nations meet their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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While there is no silver-bullet solution to the toxic tide of plastic surging into our oceans, recycling must form part of the answer. The problem, many experts say, is that current processes are not fit for purpose.
The…

Every year, UN Environment publishes a myriad of content hoping to give you, our readers, a glimpse of what we do.
We cover a wide range of environmental issues such as climate change, threats to ecosystems, biodiversity,…

At the precise moment when ISIS fighters were prepping for their retreat from the Iraqi city of Ramadi in February 2016, Hassan Mohammed lay in bed struggling to breathe.
For nine months, through the jihadist occupation of…

Pakistani customs officers trained by UN Environment are responsible for a massive seizure of R-22 (also known as HCFC-22) refrigerant, a powerful ozone-depleting substance and greenhouse gas.
In the largest seizure of its…